Grow With Us

Planting and Plucking

This past week we looked at the seasons of birth and death. We found out a lot about each one, but how do these two seasons compare to each other? We examine that today and help you find out the best way to handle each as they come into your life.

﻿﻿﻿Both are Field Seasons

What is a field season? It is a time that relates to your calling and purpose in living for God and serving His Kingdom. Each of the planting and plucking seasons work to assist us in growing and maintaining the gifts, talents and goals God has put in us. For example: God has offered you the gift of discernment in a prayer service. That takes planting yourself in the Word, prayer and fasting to understand how to use it properly. Reading scriptures about the practice of discernment and people who used it will give you a baseline for how to use it. Praying and fasting for God to develop your discernment and lead you in how to use it puts you in the proper path to expressing this gift properly. Also, having a plan with specific goals can ensure that you are focused in your planting.

It also takes plucking up to develop your gift. To continue with our example, you'll have to look at your life. What actions, thoughts or lifestyles might prevent you from expressing discernment correctly. Is there anything that takes you away from the presence of God? Do you feel like your brain goes fuzzy or even shuts off when you do a certain task? That's preventing discernment from developing. It's up to you in what and how much you'll give up. Some things are just needing to be sacrificed for a season and some for a lifetime. Praying to God for help with what to pluck up and even asking Him to pluck things up for you will go a long way to help you in tending your life.

Both can help others, but in different ways

Planting offers us an opportunity to help others. When we get involved with somebody's spiritual development, we are becoming a planter. We have the ability to place things in their lives that will forever change their outlook. With this ability comes great responsibility. We need to pray and ask God for guidance in what to plant and how to plant it in somebody's life. If they are needing salvation but have been burned by religion in the past, knowing how to approach them with the seed of salvation is as key as the experience itself. Only the master gardener can help us. By leaning on His guidance for specific instruction, we'll be more than capable of offering what is needed to those we are witnessing.

Meanwhile, its not our job to remove things from people's lives. This can be frustrating as we can see what somebody needs but we are unable to bring them to that need. It's the double edged sword of free will. God allows us to make our own choices, and we can't make them for others. However, we can guide them in the right direction. Simply by being present in a person's life can open up the door to guiding them in what to remove from their life. A lot of what we'll do for others won't be plucking or pruning, but listening to them talk through their troubles and trials. When somebody knows they have a kind ear listening, they are more apt to receive instruction from that person because they trust them. By listening to the individual, we'll grow our reach and have a garden of individuals that are growing in Christ.

Share Your Voice

We want to hear your thoughts now. What do you think of the season of life and death? Did we leave something out that you think should be added? Do you have a story of plating of plucking up you wish to share? Help us and the other readers of The Way out by expanding this conversation in the comments below. Thanks again and we'll be back next week with our next comparison of seasons.

Author

Chris Farris is the author of The Way, a manual detailing how to implement the Beatitudes into your life. He review events and other media and offers other insights into writing and working for the Kingdom of God.